The American Studies Association should come clean on their boycott of Israeli Universities.  It is a misguided attempt to stay relevant by invoking a politically charged issue, expressing no concern for Palestinians or human rights.  Instead, the association’s decision amounts to pointing fingers, not solving problems.

Regardless of what you think about Israel, this is not the time or the place to point the finger at the Jewish state.  Even if you do not agree with Israel’s stance towards the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, their policy represents only a small fraction of all human rights violations in the region.  Syria has been gassing, torturing and murdering hundreds of thousands of its own citizens.  Saudi Arabia affords no rights to women and barely any to prisoners.  Egypt’s military autocracy has been killing hundreds of protestors to maintain a thoroughly undemocratic regime.  Why not go after their universities?  Or how about boycotting Russian universities for supporting those regimes?

Rather, the ASA targets Israel because it is a hot button issue amongst liberal academia.  If the ASA had a real interest in human rights, they would target its most egregious abusers.  Instead, they focus on the one liberal democracy in the region: one with a defined bill of rights and protections for its citizens.  The ASA’s inappropriate ploy for attention does a disservice to the citizens of oppressive regimes who lack fundamental freedoms.

Further, there is no constructive goal behind the boycott.  The ASA’s attack on academic freedom simply blames Israel without offering any solution.  If they were interested in empowering Palestinians, they could have thrown their support towards Palestinian infrastructure or education or offered support to universities advancing the Palestinian cause.  Rather, attacking Israel simply stokes neoliberal, anti-Israeli passion.  This is an attention grab, not a strategy.

Moreover, isolating Israel worsens the problem.  Putting Israel at odds with the rest of the world only reinforces their mind-set that they are righteous and alone in their cause.  If Israel bashing were a real and effective strategy, the litany of anti-Zionist UN declarations and international diplomatic disapproval certainly would get Israel to change course.  However, it has not.  Instead, Israel has doubled down on their blockades, settlements and retaliatory strikes.  Not only is the ASA’s anti-Israeli approach a meaningless attempt to stay relevant, it is counterproductive.

The American Studies Association’s boycott on Israeli higher learning institutions fails on every level.  It unfairly ignores the plight of the entire Middle East for one small fraction of the region’s potential human rights abuses.  It only criticizes Israel without any realistic demands and ossifies their behavior.

This boycott contains no strategy, drive, long term thought or concern for Palestinians.  It is simply a political ploy, designed to get the academic left’s support and the nation’s attention.  But it represents the same mind-set that has stagnated a positive resolution between Israel and Palestine.

It is time to move past petty outrage towards either nation and work towards a lasting, peaceful solution.